Oct 23, 2010

With Middle East "peace talks' stalled, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is considering asking the United Nations Security Council unilaterally to declare a state on Palestinian lands occupied by Israel since 1967, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

The approach has grown out of what Abbas regards as frustration with the immediate negotiations that began a month ago but already are bogged down over the issue of Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank.

"Abbas has started to doubt that the path of negotiations will lead to a solution with Israel," according to Palestinian analyst Hani al-Masri. "I think he is almost convinced that the negotiations have failed."

Abbas believes the U.N. route would bypass reliance on Israel ending its own occupation or the U.S. pressuring its closest ally.

"The negotiations with Israel have been ongoing for more than 19 years since the Madrid peace conference in 1991 and until now have not achieved anything," said Mohammad Ashtayeh, a member of the Palestinian negotiating team.

"It makes no sense for the Palestinian people to continue to wait for an Israeli government that wants peace and a U.S. administration that is able to pressure Israel," he said. "Experience has made it clear that is not going to happen."

As a consequence, the Palestinians are considering a more drastic approach of taking the entire issue of Palestinian statehood to the U.N. Security Council.